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Flags lowered Monday for Spc. Joseph Johnson

June 24, 2010

LANSING, Mich.--By order of Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm, U.S. flags on all campuses of Western Michigan University and throughout Michigan will be lowered Monday, June 28, in honor of Army Spc. Joseph D. Johnson of Flint, Mich., who died June 16 at North Kunduz, Afghanistan.

Johnson, age 24, died of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 161st Engineer Support Company, 27th Engineer Battalion (Combat) (Airborne), 20th Engineer Brigade, 18th Airborne Corps, Fort Brag, N.C.

Johnson's family has requested that flags be lowered Monday, June 28. His funeral service is Saturday, June 26, at Central Church of the Nazarene in Flint, Mich.

In December 2003, Gov. Granholm issued a proclamation requiring U.S. flags to be lowered to half-staff throughout the state of Michigan and on Michigan waters to honor Michigan servicemen and servicewomen killed in the line of duty.

Michigan was among the first states to honor its fallen sons and daughters by lowering flags.

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Media contact: Thom Myers, (269) 387-8400, thom.myers@wmich.edu

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